Ivanka Trump is ‘coveted’ by her father, says Omarosa
President Donald Trump listens to daughter Ivanka speak at a steel mill in Illinois on July 26. Photo: Getty
In her latest bombshell claims about her time as a White House senior aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman says President Donald Trump’s relationship with daughter Ivanka often crosses the line of “appropriate father/daughter behaviour”.
Ms Manigault Newman alleges that Mr Trump “covets his daughter”, who works with him as a senior White House adviser.
The lurid Ivanka claims are among a slew of eyebrow-raising allegations made in Ms Manigault Newman’s tell-all Unhinged, which hit stands Tuesday (US time) amid a wrecking ball publicity tour by the sacked Trump staffer.
Ms Manigault Newman described in the book alleged incidents where the president, 72, boasted about his daughter’s body and encouraged others to discuss her in sexual terms.
She said “based on my observations”, the pair’s relationship “jumps right over” appropriate father/daughter behaviour.
“It’s uncomfortable to watch them,” wrote Ms Manigault Newman.
If Ivanka was impacted by the claims, she didn’t show it on an official visit to Pittsburgh:
Mr Trump has never been shy about his admiration for Ivanka, whose mother Ivana Trump was Mr Trump’s first wife.
In a 2003 interview with infamous shock jock Howard Stern, Mr Trump described his then-21-year-old daughter as having “the best body.”
In a separate interview, he gave Stern permission to call Ivanka a “piece of ass”.
During an appearance on US talk show The View in 2006 the future president joked that, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her”.
In Unhinged, Ms Manigault Newman claimed that during filming of The Apprentice in 2007, Mr Trump “egged on” Kiss bassist contestant Gene Simmons when he “leered at” Ivanka’s breasts.
Mr Trump asked Simmons in a crowded room “What do you think of Ivanka?”, according to Ms Manigault Newman.
“She’s a very, very sexy, desirable young woman who I’m looking forward to getting to know much better, if you know what I mean, with all due respect,” Simmons replied, according to Unhinged.
Ms Manigault Newman wrote that Mr Trump’s response to hearing his daughter spoken about in sexual terms was “obvious delight.”
Contacted by People magazine, a rep for Simmons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Trump, flanked by wife Melania, celebrates election night with Ivanka on November 9. 2016. Photo: Getty
At a meeting during Mr Trump’s presidential campaign, he “insisted” that those in attendance – who were not identified in Unhinged – admire his daughter in a tight skirt, alleged Ms Manigault Newman.
“Ivanka came into the room wearing a fitted skirt. The entire meeting had to stop so [Trump] could gush about her body,” she wrote.
“He insisted we all agree that his daughter’s tight skirt was very flattering. I thought, ‘Why don’t the two of you just cut it out?’.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the specific claims.
But the book “is riddled with lies and false accusations”, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“It’s sad that a disgruntled former White House employee is trying to profit off these false attacks, and even worse that the media would now give her a platform,” said Ms Huckabee Sanders.
President Trump slammed his former protegee on Twitter, calling her “that dog” after she claimed in her book that he is a racist in “mental decline”.
In a swift response to the term, The New York Times called Mr Trump’s clapback “a remarkably crude use of the presidential bully pulpit”.